E2T2 Portfolio Page for Aliria Bello



Summary

My students worked on a recent news article which they had to research about. They had to use research skills already learned in the second trimester lesson. The research about it, got the most important details and explanations that go with the details and created a Prezi or Glogster presentation. They did a great job.


Shared Lessons, Units, and Resources

Daily Lessons
Instructional Units
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Blog Entries

CLICK HERE to visit my blog and see all of the entries.
Aliria Bello



Student Work Samples



Summative Narrative

When I heard about the E2T2 grant this year for Middle School teachers, I got very excited and inmediately filled out the form and got authorized by my principal to attend it. Being part of this E2T2 grant has really been a privilege since I wanted to broaden my knowledge about including more technology in my daily lessons. It is obvious, that now a days students are all about technology and if it is used in the classroom more engaging kids are observed in the classroom. I have learned so much now that I hope to include a lot of my learning in my lessons next year.

One thing I inmediately discovered with the use of technology in the classroom is that it builds more confident learners becaiuse they get to watch themselves succeeding which permits them to take the risk of continuing to learn. I have had to adapt myself to let students be more on their own than having me always be the one to tell them what to do. By this I mean that technology has been the tool given to meet the goal.

Another thing that I found benefitial for myself as the classroom teacher is that students become more motivated to learn and that feeling is really rewarding. Also, students seem to be more engaged and more responsable at monitoring their own learning which saves the teacher time and the class ends being very productive for both the teacher and the student.

Through out the 2010-2011 school year, I wanted to implement everything I have been learning in the E2T2 grant trainings, however I realized that I needed to take small steps at a time because it was too much but for the coming years, I will be implementing more and more as I feel more confident using everything I have learned.

As a result from being part of this grant, I see myself using and implementing more and more of what I have learned not only to show it but also to have more motivated learners and achievers in my classroom.




Literature Review

Literature Review

When I attended the first E2T2 meeting we were given the Reinventing Project-Based Learning book which we had to read through out the school year. We had to use the book and all its valuable information to start playing with all in it and design and plan technology based projects. While reading it, I was impressed about all the things, me as a teacher could use and incorporate in my daily classes and which I did not know existed.

After reading about the 21st Century Literacies, I understood that they intended to prepare today’s learners for the future and with the tools they needed to know to be inmerse and knowledgable of this digital world, this age learners were going to face and be exposed to. Knowing that the world is constantly changing, today’s learners need to keep in mind that they are going to be part and belong to a global society to which they better be part of if no big challenges want to be faced.

Everything the authors share in this book are absolutely facts that make me reflect on my own teaching style. There is a statement I felt in love with, it is “learners acquire learning dispositions less through direct teaching and more through experiences and encouragement”. After exposing my students to a lot of technology based projects and skills, it made me end up believing that now I have more confident learners because they get to watch themselves succeed which permits them to take the risk of continuing not only to learn more everyday but also to use this 21st century skills they have been very curious to know and learn about.

Now that my students have had more experience using technology tools in the classroom, I would say that I ended up having more motivated learners since they are monitoring their own learning while technology is the tool being used to meet the lessons’ goals. Now a days it is crutial to be aware of all the positiveness that the implementation of technology in the classroom brings into everyday instruction.

To sum up, reading this book has definitely influenced my teaching and the implementation of some technology in my lessons has made a tremendous difference as well as played a positive role because students want to be exposed in their clases to all this technology they are seeing in real life. Because of the effectiveness that I have experienced in my clases using technology, my goal is to bring as much tecnology as I can and implement it in my daily instructional clases.